OK, now for some facts.

(Remember we are talking spring air pistols here, I don’t pretend to know a great deal about air rifles or PCP pistols). Our current state of knowledge of unmarked, fully functional British-made springer pistols made over the last 150 years boils down to just 11 examples. These are summarized in the following collage. This has been put together using information culled from years of research, involving access to numerous collections, magazine articles, books, auction catalogues, patent data bases etc. If anyone knows of a documented example not on this list I would be over the moon to hear about it, as they turn up so rarely (about one every 15 years on average, it seems).



Of these 10 pistols, three are definitely crude home-made jobs, two are almost certainly assignable to a maker (Bussey and Greener), and the rest are interesting subjects for discussion.

What is noteworthy is that of all these pistols that enthusiasts have chosen to make, only one is a pop-out pistol. Presumably all the time and effort needed to produce a working pistol is not something that the average amateur machinist would want to waste on what is little more than a toy. However, things would be different if there was a strong financial motivation in making such a pop-out prototype. Given the obvious age of the pistol, T.J. Harrington then comes to mind. Then when one takes into account the similarities between his first commercial Gat and the mystery pistol, I think one must admit that there is a at least a grain of possibility that he made it.